Bloodlines
by SlyStrukk
Summary: What happens when a werewolf is drained to the point of death and given vampire blood? Josh is about to find out… SLASH, Josh/Aidan
1. Chapter 1

**Summary**: What happens when a werewolf is drained and given vampire blood? Josh is about to find out… SLASH, Josh/Aidan

**Author's Note**: Okay, this chapter is a bit short, but this plot bunny bit me and just wouldn't leave, so you'll be getting more of this story soon. It's currently unbetaed, so excuse any errors.

This story takes place in after the events of Season 1. Enjoy!

**Chapter One**: The Incident

Josh wished that he could say he'd been in worst situations.

Unfortunately, this was up-shit-creek-without-a-paddle territory that even _he'd_ never experienced.

Aidan was gone—swept away by some CIA looking vampires and a flimsy excuse, as killing Bishop apparently meant he had even more unfinished vampire business to take care of.

Sally was trapped in the living room by lines of salt where two grim looking vampires stood guard, screaming her head off and doing her best to shake the house. It wasn't doing any good, but Josh appreciated the sentiment.

It was nearly four weeks until the next full moon, there wasn't a stray piece of wood in sight, and Josh… Josh was utterly defenseless.

The third vampire, a tall blond woman with expertly coiffed hair and a wicked smirk, advanced on him with a rather bored expression. "This is, you realize, simply a formality."

Josh blinked, wondering if he'd somehow missed something with all of the holyshitI'mgoingtodie mantra currently running a marathon in his head. "A formality?" He repeated somewhat doubtfully.

"Yes," she began, her voice dripping with scorn. "Madam is quite interested in Aidan—he has proven himself by taking care of his troublesome maker."

"Still not seeing what where any of this is going," Josh replied weakly, jumping slightly as his back hit the wall.

"Aidan has all of the makings of the next great coven leader, for all of his youth," the blonde said softly as she closed the distance between them slowly. Her nose crinkled and Josh resisted the urge to roll his eyes. _I stink, werewolves stink, heard it all before. Can we just get to killing part? _"And we simply cannot allow him to continue playing house with a sad-eyed werewolf and some silly ghost girl."

"_I'll show you silly ghost right after I—" _Sally yelled, only for a beefy vampire in a too tight shirt to thrown a handful of salt at her. Hissing as steam rose from her 'skin', Sally fell down to the floor, her mouth silent but her eyes murderous.

"Keep your trap shut, Casper," the man rasped out in a low voice. "Save that voice of yours for all of the screaming you'll be doing once the exorcist gets here."

"Leave her alone!" Josh yelled out. "She's done nothing to you—_we've_ done nothing to you! Whatever 'Madam' has planned for Aidan, that's his business. We'll leave him alone, move out! I swear!" It was a complete lie, of course, but he'd say anything to avoid evisceration at this point.

The woman barked out a laugh, and Josh noticed that she might have been beautiful if she wasn't such an obviously evil bitch. "I doubt that—you and ghost girl have shown remarkable loyalty towards Aidan in the past. You make him weak. We need him strong. Ergo, we kill you. It's a simple concept, really."

Simple or not, Josh wasn't able to just stand there and allow himself or Sally to be killed by the vampire FBI. Taking a chance, Josh summoned all of his strength and knocked the blonde away, catching her off guard. Running towards the living room, Josh put all of his energy in making it to the salt line. If he could just break it—put a single slash through it—Sally would have a chance to escape. That would have to be enough.

A hand grabbed him from behind, slamming him into the kitchen table so hard it collapsed and splintered underneath him. "Bad doggy. Now you'll have to be punished."

Winded and gasping as lancing pain ran up his back, Josh grabbed onto a broken table leg, only to scream in agony as the woman stepped on his hand and crushed it under her stiletto heels.

Fighting the urge to pass out, Josh dimly heard Sally screaming for them to stop. "Screw… you… bitch," he gasped out, figuring that would have to be his badass last words.

They could use some work.

"I must congratulate you—that almost made things interesting. Good show. Now, stay still—I don't want any more of your disgusting blood in my mouth than necessary. This won't hurt a bit."

She leaned closer to him, her mouth ghosting over Josh's jugular. "It'll hurt a hell of a lot."

The next thing Josh knew, a sharp, tearing pain ripped across his throat and he screamed before he felt his own blood flooding his mouth. She wasn't feeding from him—she'd ripped his throat apart.

"God," the vampire woman hacked next to him, spitting out her blood as he choked and bled out next to her. "Tastes like three-day-old corpse."

"Told you to use a knife," the beefy one snickered.

Josh couldn't breath and blood was gushing from his throat and Sally was _screaming_… Sally who would be joining him the afterlife once these assholes ripped her away from her existence, and something in Josh, something dark and primal and ancient, _snapped._

Literally.

Something took over his body and he found the strength to latch onto the blonde's arm, taking a brutal bite out of the vampire who'd dealt him a killing blow. Crying out, she ripped her arm away from his teeth, but not without sacrificing a large chuck of her. She fell back onto the floor, sliding into the living room.

Suddenly, the wind picked up and things began to swirl the air as Sally roared in rage. _The salt line_, Josh thought faintly, happy that he'd managed to set her free, even though he hadn't managed to save himself.

Fire coursed through him as his vision went dark, and Josh's last thought was of Aidan, hoping that the vampire had enough common sense not to blame himself when he discovered Josh's rotting corpse.

* * *

><p>They'd finally realized that nothing could stop her, and they ran for the door. Sally stopped them before they could get that far, using a mighty gust of wind to knock them all askew. She tossed one of them through a wall, watching idly as he slid down to the floor in a broken, bloody mess.<p>

Josh lay dead in a puddle of his own blood and they were _going to pay_.

Her eyes darker than Aidan's on a particularly trying day, Sally advanced on Josh's murderers with a large chunk of wood, hoping they wouldn't die too quickly.

* * *

><p>"I hear that you live with a vampire and a ghost. Such… interesting companions."<p>

Josh figured that Roland meant 'disgusting,' but was simply too polite to say it. Shifting uncomfortably in the backseat of the limo, Aidan resisted the urge to sigh. "It keeps life interesting, that's for sure."

"But why would you want to keep such company? Why not go to your true home and live in the company of others of your kind?"

"Like Bishop?" Aidan asked sarcastically, dropping his polite façade. This entire ordeal was getting a bit annoying. He was off to see Her, a prospect that made him wonder if it were actually possible for vampires to break out in a cold sweat, with no one but Roland to keep him company. Roland was a bit… terrifying—he'd been no more than sixteen when he'd been turned. He was the youngest vampire Aidan had ever met, made before the eighteen-and-older law had been established.

That made him old—far older than Aidan, but you couldn't tell from his angelic blond curls, pale blue eyes, and pretty features. He was rumored to be a favorite of Hers, and so temperamental he was known for killing vampire that looked at him sideways. Not surprising—there was a reason why making children into vampires was outlawed, after all.

"Bishop, of course, was deluded," Roland replied smoothly. "But perhaps if you had been a bit more active in the Chicago coven, you'd have been able to dissuade him from taking such rash actions to 'out' our race."

"I think Bishop was a bit far gone for that—my living situation is not why things got so out of control," Aidan said quietly, not likely the insinuation that the whole Bishop debacle could have been avoided by any action of his.

"Perhaps. But your 'living situation,' as you put it, is being taken care of as we speak."

Eyes narrowing in suspicious, Aidan leaned closer to the now-smirking blond. "What in the hell are you talking about?"

"Such language."

Growling, fangs flicking out, Aidan leaned towards the boy. "Answer me!" His mind raced with thoughts of Josh and Sally. He'd left with Roland so that they'd be safe! If something happened to either one of them, he'd never forgive himself.

"Let's just say that… your little supernatural halfway house is permanently closed for business."

The car was moving swiftly through busy city streets, but Aidan didn't care. Crashing through the window nearest to him, he broke out into a run, praying to Gods he didn't believe that he wasn't too late.

**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's** **Note**: I must say, I'm astounded by the amount of feedback I've gotten from this story thus far. The US _Being Human_ fandom is very new, so I honestly wasn't expecting ANY comments from this story, but I'm pleasantly surprised.

Thanks to everyone reading (even those of you who're just lurking) and, especially, those of you who've taken the time to review. I hope everyone continues to enjoy the story!

**Warnings**: this chapter contains a bit of gore, but nothing worse than what appears on the show. Also, there are some glaring medical inaccuracies (CPR related), but I figure that I can get away with it since I'm talking about vampires and werewolves and ghosts…

Also, a bit of Nora/Josh in this chapter, but it's the bare minimum…

**Chapter Two**: The Aftermath

Aidan could smell the blood before he rounded the corner.

He didn't even realize the house was shaking on its very foundations until he was inside.

At first, it was impossible to discern what had happened. There was pure chaos, a whirlwind of paper and dust and broken furniture swirling around the center of the living room, and the smell of Josh's blood and dead vampire was so overpowering Aidan fought the urge to gag.

In the center of the whirlwind was Sally, looking nearly as bad as she had when the exorcist almost ripped her spirit apart. Her eyes were completely black, with dark veins creeping from her eyelids and down her face like some odd mockery of tears. Her teeth were bared like she was ready to take a bite out of the next living thing that got close to her and, turning her blank eyes towards Aidan, she let out a wordless, primeval roar so powerful it shook the air around him.

What in the hell had happened to make her this way? Where was Josh? He couldn't be, he wasn't…

"Sally!" Aidan called out above the sound of furniture crashing.

She didn't seem to hear him—given the state of her, it wasn't surprising.

"Sally, stop!"

She let out another roar, but this time it wasn't wordless. "HE'S DEAD! HE'S GONE!"

Aidan froze. No. _No_.

"Josh," he whispered in the now silent room. Sally seemed to have shocked herself out of her previous state, looking small and alone and heartbroken as she began to sob harshly.

"They killed him," she sobbed, wrapping her arms around her middle in a vain attempt at comfort. "I couldn't, couldn't stop them."

"Where is he?" Aidan demanded hoarsely, unable to believe Josh was actually dead. A world without the awkward, surly, sweet werewolf didn't compute. The smell of his blood was everywhere, overpowering, and Aidan didn't know where it was coming from, but that _didn't_ mean he was dead. Sally had to be mistaken.

She pointed a shaky hand towards the kitchen before collapsing onto the ground with a cry, the house vibrating the wake of her sorrow.

Aidan sped into the kitchen.

Nothing could have prepared him for the sight that greeted him there.

Josh was lying on a pile of what might have once been a table, his body thrown down carelessly like a sack doll. Aidan took in the scene and stifled a gasp. Josh's neck… his neck was completely destroyed, the open, messy wound gleaming wetly. Blood, so thick and heavy it appeared black, dripped copiously from the wound onto the table and collected to the floor beneath Josh's prone body. And god, he was so pale.

Josh looked, for all intents and purposes, dead. Aidan's senses were telling him the same—it was only Aidan's heart that refused to believe.

The vampire collapsed to his knees, ignoring the foul-smelling blood as he desperately looked for some sign of life.

"Josh, c'mon, no, no," he muttered as he checked his best friend's vitals frantically. "You can't, you _can't_."

The first thing Aidan noticed was that Josh didn't appear to be breathing.

The second thing he noticed was that Josh was burning up. And a temperature like that meant that, in some way, his friend was still alive.

The relief that poured through him was better than the taste of hot, searing blood.

"Sally!" Aidan bellowed as he stripped off his shirt, pressing it to Josh's torn neck. "SALLY! I need you in here! Josh is still alive!"

Sally appeared in the kitchen in an instant, red-eyed, devastated and suspicious. "Alive?" She repeated dubiously, but with a desperate hint of hope. "H-He doesn't feel alive to me, and believe me, I can sense that kind of thing."

"Are you going argue with me while he bleeds out, or are you going to help me!" Aidan snapped, understanding Sally's feelings, but not really having the time or patience for them.

"What do you need me to do?" She asked immediately, dropped down next to him. Aidan wordlessly guided her (cool, but corporeal) hands to Josh's neck. Taking the hint, Sally braced her hands against the reddening t-shirt that was keeping Josh from bleeding out.

Aidan immediately began to do compressions, trying not to think about how long Josh's brain had been deprive of oxygen—or what slim chances the werewolf might have at some sort of recovery, much less a full one.

"God, he's so warm," Sally remarked tearfully. "How can he be this warm, and not be breathing?"

"I don't know," Aidan replied quietly before he lowered his lips to Josh's. Of all the times he'd imagined what it might be like to kiss his best friend, he'd never thought it'd be to save his life.

Aidan pushed one breath into Josh's deprived lungs before pulling back and frowning.

What was that?

"Aidan! What are you doing?" Sally's tearful voice snapped him back into action and he gave Josh another breath.

Then he pulled back in shock. Josh's mouth tasted like _vampire_ blood.

In that same second, Josh jerked, coughing and wheezing before stilling again. "Oh thank god, thank god," Sally whispered fervently. "Thank you, thank you."

Closing his eyes to hide tears of relief, Aidan pushed aside his errant observation and just reveled the fact that, at least for the moment, _Josh was breathing_.

"Keep pressure on this wound," Aidan advised sharply when he noticed Sally's hands had gotten lax. Aidan checked Josh's vitals, noting that they were far too weak, but he took an inordinate amount of relief in the faint heartbeat beneath his hand.

"Right, sorry," Sally replied, worrying her bottom lip. "But what are we going to do? This isn't some scratch—this, this is _bad_, Aidan. He needs a hospital."

"We can't risk it," Aidan said, fishing out his cell phone. "If it was something minor, maybe, but if he comes in like this, they're going to do blood tests and god only knows what they'd find."

"And? So? At least he might live!" Sally snapped.

"To be a lab rat!" Aidan retorted, pressing a number and putting the phone against his ear, using his other hand to monitor Josh's pulse. "It's already a miracle he's alive; they're going to wonder how he's breathing with a practically slit throat! Without his werewolf blood, he'd be dead."

_He still should be dead even with werewolf healing_, Aidan thought, disturbed. _It's too far away from the full moon. _

"Who are you calling?" Sally asked, finally noticing the phone.

"Nora, it's Aidan," he spoke as Sally listened attentively. "…wait, listen, I need you to get to the house now… it's Josh, he needs blood, A positive, at least two pints…" Aidan paused, listening the woman's worried voice. "It's bad, bring whatever you can get."

He hung up, sighing. "The closest thing Josh is going to get to a hospital is me and Nora."

"It better be enough," Sally whispered, and a gentle wind caressed Josh's overheated skin.

* * *

><p>By the time Nora got to them, Josh looked worse than before. He was extremely pale except for a fevered flush across his cheeks and over his eyelids. His breathing was shallow, and every breath rattled unsteadily in his lungs. It seemed that, for every breath Josh struggled to make, Aidan swore he could almost feel his heart beating frantically inside of his chest.<p>

It took Nora 20 minutes to get to them—it might as well have been an eternity.

To pass the time, Aidan asked Sally to explain what happened.

As she began a halting retelling of events, Aidan felt fury burn in his veins. How dare them! How dare the Dutch come into his home and nearly destroy everything he'd ever cared for! And all for some piss poor excuse—as if he could become some sort of coven leader. As if he would want to!

"How did they even get in?" Aidan asked, irrationally angry with Josh for even allowing vampires through the threshold.

"They just walked right in," she snapped, detecting the edge in his voice. "What, you think we just said, 'oh, please, vampire FBI, come right in and viciously murder us'?"

"But that's impossible! Vampires can't—"

"I know! But it doesn't matter how—they got in, and now Josh…" her voiced trailed before she began to tell of the attack that nearly killed the werewolf. When she got to the end of her tale, Aidan froze, a horrifying possibility going through his mind as he remembered the taste of vampire blood on Josh's lips.

"Sally, you said that Josh _bit_ the woman vampire? After she bit him?"

"Yeah, then she broke the salt line and I killed every single one of them," Sally said with relish. Aidan would have to address that under less dire circumstances.

"Did he break the skin?" If he did… there was a possibility… actually, Aidan didn't even want to think of the possibilities yet.

"Yeah, took a chunk right out of the bitch. Why?"

Aidan was just about to answer when Nora came into the kitchen, crying out in shock and dismay at the state of her boyfriend.

* * *

><p>In another twenty minutes, Josh was sewed up to the best of Aidan and Nora's shared abilities, and currently undergoing a blood transfusion. Aidan was just about to suggest that Josh might be stable enough to move upstairs when he saw Nora pull a gentle hand through Josh's messy hair and press a kiss to his feverish forehead.<p>

Swallowing bitter jealousy, Aidan had to look away.

"I think we can take him upstairs. He seems better," Sally ventured, looking between Nora and Aidan with something akin to pity, although neither of them noticed.

"Better is relatively," Nora grunted, before sighing. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This is just… bad. Really, really bad, and I'm not sure if he will make it without hospital care."

"He'll make it!" Sally cried out. "He… he has to."

"He will," Aidan reassured quietly, hoping with everything in him that he didn't just tell a lie.

"Yeah. I think you're right, we can move him now," Nora remarked tiredly. "Aidan, um. I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name with all the gaping wounds and blood loss."

"I'm Sally, a… friend of Josh and Aidan's."

"Wish I could say its been nice to meet you, but…" Nora trailed off.

They'd gotten the shock of their lives when Nora walked in and immediately asked Sally to move aside so she could take a look at Josh's neck. She'd never seen Sally before, but Aidan supposed that having a werewolf for a boyfriend was likely to open anyone's mind.

And Aidan could tell that, despite the terrible circumstances, Sally was excited that someone had mistaken her for one of the living.

They began the arduous task of moving Josh upstairs, and it was ultimately decided that Aidan would carry him up while Sally and Nora took care of his IV.

"Why hasn't he woken up yet?" Sally questioned worriedly once Josh had been put into his bed.

"This type of injury, of trauma, it could be a number of things. Just the amount of time that his brain was deprived of oxygen—"

"You're thinking like a human," Aidan interrupted softly from his seat near Josh's bed, eyes trained on the other man's face. His hands were holding onto one of Josh's… he remembered, not so long ago, when Josh gave him an amazing amount of comfort by doing the same.

"A human," Nora repeated, a dark look coming over her face. "Right."

"What I meant is that, Josh is a werewolf, and they're built tough."

"Not tough enough," Sally replied sadly. "At least, not this far away from the full moon."

For a moment, no one could think of what to say.

"Well, I can't even explain the fever," Nora finally said with a sigh. "From what you've told me, it shouldn't have been long enough for any sort of infection to set in, and I didn't see any signs of infection in the wound when I dressed it."

Aidan sighed, figuring it was time to come clear with a fear he'd been keeping to himself.

"I think that it may have something to do with the fact that Josh bit a vampire."

"What do you mean?" Nora asked, brow furrowed. Aidan had to give her credit—she was handling the situation pretty well.

"I…" Aidan paused. "I don't think I ever told you how vampires are made."

"You told me," Sally said pointedly, obviously wanting Aidan to get on with the explanation.

"Wait, I'm sorry. I know I'm about to sound incredibly rude, but what are you?" Nora interrupted, looking at Sally. "Aidan's a vampire, Josh is a werewolf, and since you seem to know what they both are, you're either one or the other, right?"

"Uh… I…"

"Oh, god, please don't tell me you're something else—I've just gotten used to vampires and werewolves. If you say you're an-an _elf_, or something, I might just lose it!"

"It's complicated," Aidan interjected. "Let's leave that for later. As I was saying, vampires make other vampires by draining humans nearly to the point of death and then giving them vampire blood."

"So…" Sally said impatiently.

"So, that's essentially what just happened to Josh."

"What?" Sally and Nora exclaimed at the same time.

"Just think about it for a moment. Josh was drained nearly to the point of death and got vampire blood when he bit that woman."

"But she didn't drain him, he bled out."

Aidan shook his head. "That sort of thing doesn't matter. It's the proximity to death that does. Anyone close to death can be changed."

"So what? Are you saying that Josh is a vampire werewolf, a were-vampire?" Sally paused, closing her eyes. "Let's pretend that didn't sound as stupid as it did."

"Honestly?" Aidan shook his head. "I have no freaking idea. I've never even heard of a werewolf ingesting vampire blood in this situation. Usually, if a werewolf bites a vampire, they're nowhere near death and their body is strong enough to break down the virus before it can take hold, but…"

"But Josh was missing half of the blood in his body and god only knows what's happening to him," Nora finished. "Do you think that's what saved him? I wasn't buying your whole werewolves-are-built-tough excuse."

"I can only guess," he replied honestly. "I wish I could say that I knew what was going to happen, but I've never even heard of this. For all I know, the vampire blood Josh drank is only enough to heal him and will be burned out of his body once he gets well; it could change him in ways I can't even imagine; hell, it could even be poisoning him now that his body can't fight it."

"So, in other words, he could die from it, or he might end up like that guy in _Underworld_."

Sally received two blank stares.

"_Underworld_? Kate Beckinsale? Vampire/werewolf grudge movie? Ring any bells?" Sally rolled her eyes. "You guys are hopeless."

Aidan didn't reply. He turned back to the werewolf and tightened his hold on Josh's hand. He had no idea what was happening to his best friend, and honestly, it was scaring the shit out of him.

Sally sat on the bed next to Josh, turning to the werewolf. "If you were awake, you would have totally gotten what I was saying. That's why you have to wake up," she said shakily. "No one's going to understand half of what I say without you—us geeks have to stick t-together." Her tears spilled over, and Sally raised a hand to touch Josh's face. It went right through him, and Nora gasped.

"Oh my god, you're a—"

"Sally, would you mind trying clean up? Josh'll pass out again if he wakes up to the mess downstairs," Aidan said before Nora could finish.

"Right." In the next instant, Sally was gone in the wake of simmering dust.

Nora gasped again. "She's a ghost. An actual ghost!"

"Yeah," Aidan murmured, not really paying attention to anything but Josh. "It's kind of a long story—she sort of came with the house."

"Sally _haunts_ you?" Nora asked incredulously.

"Sally's family," Aidan said sharply. He immediately regretted the words when Nora reeled back, surprised at his vehemence, but he didn't seem fit to take it back.

Soon after Nora found out about everything, she took off for a few weeks with nothing more than a flimsy message on Josh's phone that she was seeing family. She'd just come back, and while Aidan knew he couldn't really fault Nora for freaking out a bit, he couldn't help but think that this might have all been avoided had she stayed.

Maybe, just maybe, if she'd stayed, her and Josh would be at the point in their relationship where they would have moved in together. And if Josh hadn't been at the house today…

Aidan shook his head, dispelling those thoughts. He needed to forget about what might have happened, because this? This was reality. And honestly? If Josh had moved in with Nora, Aidan wasn't sure what he would have done with himself.

He knew that made him all kinds of possessive and pitiful, but it was the truth. And Aidan had been alive long enough to realize that lying to himself never ended well.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed—"

"It's fine, I'm just a bit touchy," Aidan reassured her with a small (and fake) smile. Aidan ran his hand over the soft skin of Josh's knuckles, not knowing that Nora was staring at them with dawning comprehension and no little amount of pain.

"Aidan, you and Josh—" Nora paused. "Do you…"

"Do I what?" Aidan asked, not really paying attention.

Behind him, Nora looked at their joined hands for a moment, expression unreadable, before she sighed with something like resignation. "Nothing. I'll be downstairs."

Aidan didn't turn around his see her leave; he just continued to stare at Josh, wondering what was happening to the younger man.

"You promised to drag me to see the last Harry Potter movie, remember?" Aidan whispered quietly as he took in his friend's still visage. "Who's going to make me sit through that torture if you don't wake up?"

Aidan waited for something. A sneer, a laugh, or even another (painfully) lengthy diatribe about how Harry Potter was a modern cornerstone of literature and cinematography.

All he got was silence.

**TBC**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note**: Sorry for the extended break! Thanks to everyone again—I'm loving the feedback this story is getting! Keep it coming, lol!

Also, this chapter included Nora POV (yeah, yeah, I know, the _horror_) but it's important to the plot. Nora won't be large part of this story—she's only around cause more angsty!Josh, then she'll exit scene left.

Just bear with her for another chapter or two, and then she'll be gone.

Enjoy!

**Chapter Three: **Waking Up

Nora sighed, setting the broom against the wall and taking a seat on the torn couch.

For better or worse, the house was as cleaned as it was going to get—much of the furniture had been destroyed, so 'cleaning' equated to throwing a lot of stuff out. According to Sally, that was pretty much the norm around here.

Sally.

Sally the _ghost_.

Jesus, what in the hell had her life turned into?

Knowing that no one was around to see her, Nora grabbed her head, curling up and fighting tears. Aidan and Sally were upstairs with Josh, probably mooning over him and talking to each other about all of the secrets she was never privy to.

Nora wouldn't go back up there unless she had to.

She hated _this_—this house, _them_.

They were close to Josh in a way she never had been—and probably never would be. A vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost becoming family—it sounded like some sort of low-budget sci-fi sitcom, but she'd seen how much they meant to each other, how much they cared, and Nora knew that it was something she could never be a part of.

Josh was holding onto her because she was his piece of normal, a symbol of the life he had to leave behind when he was cursed.

What would he do when he realized she was just like him now? That it was his fault, that he'd done this to her, that it—Nora shook her head, dispelling the thoughts.

More importantly, what would Josh do when he realized that, unlike him, she just _couldn't_ deal?

It Nora five weeks to realize that she just wasn't strong enough to deal with this curse, with the prospect of never having children, with the realization that she was now part of a world where vampires and werewolves hated and loved and fought.

Nora just hoped that Josh was alive to hate her for what she was about to do to him.

"I think he's getting better. Don't you think he's getting better?"

Aidan didn't, actually, but Sally was trying so hard to convince herself that Josh would wake up any minute that he didn't have the heart to tell her otherwise.

"I mean, he's cooling down a bit, even though he's still got a fever, and we haven't noticed any more bleeding, plus—"

"I'm sure he'll be fine, Sally," Aidan interjected, breaking her endless sentence. He spared a glance at her before returning the work at hand—he'd only realized how pulverized Josh's right hand was a few minutes ago. Thankfully, the breaks seemed clean, but a bedroom wasn't really the best place for making the sort of splints the werewolf needed. Aidan could only hope that Josh's natural healing abilities took hold of it, or else the werewolf might end up with crooked fingers.

And considering this was the guy who couldn't bear a crooked tablecloth…

Aidan looked up again when Sally snorted. "Now that's a lie if I've ever heard one. Please don't treat me like I'm _slow_ or something."

"Well, I'm _sorry_ for trying to be reassuring," Aidan snapped, not exactly feeling up to dealing with Sally's admittedly flighty personality.

"I don't want you to be _sorry_ or _reassuring_—I want Josh to _wake the hell up_. Hell, I would settle for knowing what's going on with him!" Sally disappeared for a moment, reappearing a moment later with a rather dazed look on her face. "Wow, haven't done that in a while. Josh needs to wake up before I lose all of my new ghost mojo."

Against all odds, a short bark of laughter left Aidan's chest. Leave it to Sally…

"And anyway, Josh has to wake up, otherwise you two might never get the chance to have that way long overdo conversation."

Aidan's eyebrow twitched. Not this again… "What are you—"

"You know," Sally began slyly, winking obscenely. "The conversation that starts off with you confessing your undying love for our favorite spastic werewolf and ends with you pushing Josh against a wall and ravishing him!"

"Undying love? Ravishing? Has Josh been flipping the pages of those terrible bodice rippers for you again?" Aidan queried, not rising to her bait.

"I'm passed that point now, lover boy. I can turn my own pages, thank-you-very-much." She sniffed indignantly for a moment before turning to him again. "But, don't change the topic—you need to tell Josh how you feel."

"Sally, we've had this discussion. I don't—"

"But you do." Sally said smugly. "If I had to count the amount of times you've said Josh's named during your private little naughty time…"

"I don't!" Aidan denied vehemently, glad that it was impossible for vampires to blush. Peeper ghost indeed.

"You _so_ do."

"I don't!"

"Do!" She yelled almost happily, latching onto the conversation for what it was—a distraction from Josh's silent form.

"I DON'T!" Aidan yelled back, snapping before remembered that Nora was downstairs. "I don't," he said, hissing. "And even if I did, I think you're forgetting something… Nora."

"Hmm, Nora-shmora. Who cares?" Sally replied before she grimaced. "Okay, I'll admit that was kinda bitchy, but you get what I mean, right? Josh is like a commitment-a-holic, once he warms up to someone, he's ready for matching t-shirts! I'm sure Nora is perfect nice, and I'm grateful for what she's done to help Josh—plus it doesn't hurt that she's totally hot—but they don't have a future. You know that right? She is Josh's little slice of normal, but once he finally hits reality, the only person he'll want is the person that's always been there waiting. You."

Aidan wanted to deny her words, but something in them rang true. As much as he wanted to deny it, he knew he could make Josh happier than Nora ever could.

He just needed _Josh_ to see that.

"So make him see," Sally said quietly. "Show him how much you care."

Aidan started violently, staring at the ghost with wide eyes. "C-Can—Did… Did you just read my _mind_?"

Sally shrugged, smiling wryly. "I think it's a ghost mojo thing. At first, I thought I was losing it, but its been happening more and more often now. And can I just say, it's like Aidan-and-Josh Animal Planet in your mind 24-7? I mean, I'm pretty sure some of those positions aren't humanly—or inhumanly—possible."

Aidan flushed, averting his eyes to stare and Josh's peaceful face. Leave it to Sally to make Aidan blush for the first time in over 100 years.

Just then, Aidan noticed something. A small twitch of Josh's fingers. "Josh?"

A pained grunt was his answer.

"Josh! Oh god, oh god, is he waking up?" Sally cried, nearly deafening Aidan in the process.

Aidan didn't respond; he was too busy mapping out the scrunched up features of his best friend. "Josh? You there buddy?" Aidan clasped the werewolf's uninjured hand, elated to feel the answering squeeze from the other man's weak fingers.

"C'mon, Josh, open your eyes," Aidan urged quietly. "Come on."

"Nrghh," was Josh's response, but Aidan chose to take that as a positive sign.

"Josh," Sally whispered tearfully from her perched position next to the prone man. "Please wake up."

At that moment, Josh's pale eyes fluttered open for a moment before closing again. He let out a sound of pain, his face scrunching up further. "Lights," he grunted.

In a moment, the single lamp on the bedside table shattered. Aidan gave Sally a warning look, but she just shrugged, unrepentant.

"W-Was that m-my lamp?" Josh slurred slowly. "Better n-not… it's an antique."

"Open your eyes and find out," Aidan replied in relief, the tense muscles of his shoulders relaxing. At least there wasn't any brain damage…

Josh's eyes opened slowly, squinting against the non-existent light. "Aidan?" he rasped quietly, his voice hoarse and confused. "I thought you were meeting up with Mommy Dearest."

Aidan closed his eyes against a sudden onslaught of tears. _Josh, you infuriating ass… _"Well, with you having your throat nearly ripped out, I decided to reschedule."

"Oh. _Oh_. I remember that. Not the highlight of my week," he smiled weakly at them both. "How I am alive right now?"

"Well, Aidan thinks you might turn into a hybrid of the _Underworld_ variety. Is that awesome or what?" Sally said brightly.

Josh, who'd closed his eyes again, started so violently that Aidan pushed him back down onto the bed before he hurt himself. "What? _What_?"

Roland coughed wetly, spitting out the blood that had accumulated in his mouth, and slowly picked himself off of the floor.

He'd arrived to Leesville a few minutes ago—without Aidan, her newest pet interest.

Needless to say, Mother hadn't been pleased.

Fortunately for Roland, She attributed it to a rare spot of incompetence on his part rather than the veiled disobedience that it was. She was always arrogant that way—more willing to believe in the stupidity of others than in their capacity to disobey Her.

And, god, how Roland hated Her. His maker. His _god_.

But all of that would be changing soon.

Yes… soon he would be free of Her strangling influence. Soon, he would be free to live the life that was torn from him so many centuries ago.

And he knew just where to go.

_Aidan, I hope that house of yours is still open for business, because you'll be getting another tenant soon. _


End file.
